Anqique, Modern Art Furniture Restoration

Restoration of antique or modern furniture and architectural woodwork restores the condition of the item back to what it was at an earlier time.  Restoring may include repair, refinishing, re-upholstery, or other  crafts.   During  an  initial meeting or contact, we look at the condition of your furniture needing repair. We compare that condition with details, features, and finishes of pieces we may not work on that you are happy with,  to determine your expectations. Our objective is  to help you  envision the range of restoration possibilities. In that way, you will be able to select the restoration techniques and treatments that will best meet your expectations, whether you are aware of exactly what you want before you contact us or not.
Below is a gallery of before and after photographs of furniture and architectural woodwork restoration projects.

Repairs are essential if you want to use your furniture. The original construction joints, or joinery, of furniture must be respectfully treated, or repairs will not last.  Our emphasis on quality craftsmanship in our repairs underlies all that we do, so you can  rely on:

            • A severely broken chair that we repair to safely stand up through many decades of heavy use

              Louis XV period side chair in poor condition, disassembled and repaired piece by piece:

Furniture Restoration of George Washington's Chair at Trinity Church, downtown Manhattan:

Stickley Rocker suffered serious neglect, resulting from being nailed together and lack of maintenance:

Rocker rail, arm split, even top rail broken apart- complete rebuild of parts and joinery

Backside only of top rail to be replaced, to keep original

The worst neglect- chair joints nailed, small finish nails worse than large like this

            • 20th Century dowelled chairs deserve proper attention too, and need it hundreds of years sooner than older mortise and tenon joined chairs.  The way to repair a loose chair is to disassemble it into all its parts, then cut off the dowels, drill out the holes slightly larger, and drill out the dowels and insert a dowel sized and individually adjusted to fit tightly, so the chair is tight without any glue at all , and only then re-glued. By rebuilding the chair this way, it should last 50 - 75 years before loosening up again:

Dowels cut off, drilled out, larger dowels inserted in each joint

Each chair component is separately glued together

            • Improper "repairs", including injecting expanding polyurethane glues (like "Gorilla"  glue) into the joints, or worse yet installing metal angles, or nails or screws, are 3 month to 1 year "fixes".  Inappropriate repairs are expensive no matter how cheap.  Especially when the loosening is often accompanied by breaking, as only a few joints loosen at once, putting too much stress on too small an area or on too few loose joints. After such a repair, breaks often are  accompanied by major collapses.

Dining Tables need care too, especially with Regency Style Dowelled Legs:

The worst neglect- chair joints nailed, small finish nails worse than large like this

Leaf supports worn, and need rebuilding of the knuckle joints &  boring, filling with a dowel and drilling new hole

This Table design is more challenged than the Regency Pedestal:

            • Marquetry or veneer inlays replacing missing elements to be seamless and indistinguishable from the original elements, whether it is Louis XV floral marquetry created by master ebenistes ca. 1750,  or a pre-War reproduction dining table with missing pieces of string inlays around the cross-banded boder.

Early 18th Century Queen Anne Chest of Drawers, requiring Crossbanded Marquetry on Drawers

            • Chest of Drawers Rebuilding

Periodic maintenance is necessary, so the drawers will function smoothly like new.  For an old, wobbly piece, complete  disassembly of the chest into all components is the start. The drawers are separated into the sides, back, front, bottom on a bench, then each piece is repaired to compensate for wear- the sides are added to from the bottom with similar wood, all the dovetail joints shimmed to be tight without glue, then when all is restored to original dimensions (and joinery), re-glued. We take the frame apart in the same way; after each piece is added to with Dutchman inlays to compensate for breakage or other losses to the same dimension as originally made,  all joints are restored to original profiles and tightness (without glue), it is again disassembled and re-glued.

Early 18th Century American Queen Anne Period High Chest of Drawers, drawer runners and rails repaired:

The chest will next need restoration of the carcase again in the 22nd century.  We can discuss what is needed for the finish after seeing photos and understanding what your goals are. Everything is saved to the maximum extent possible, for instance the rails the drawers ride on, are very worn on top, but probably pristine on the bottom side, so we flip them over and reattach. Using the original cut wire nails or screws.  Any Dutchman inlays or shims are to match original profiles, but not more than is necessary for functionality and the desired aesthetic restoration or conservation, which we have to discuss.

American Empire Sideboard Repair, ca. 1830- Repaired with Inlays, Rebuilt drawers, French Polished, Hdwr.:

            • Carving  matches original missing elements, whether  Gothic workmanship, or highly stylized Georgian period, or more theatrical and flowing Italian Baroque, or early 20th century neoclassical carved Church pew ends. Our carvers match the hand of the original carver and flawlessly inlay replacement elements.

Renaissance carving replicating pew end behind, before head carved on left, during carving on right

            • Turnings made on a lathe,  are perfect hand-turned copies of the original hand-turned spindles, balusters, or other parts.

Balcony railing spindles, turned from Locust wood

            • Metal repair skillfully executed, and invisibly done. We cast, forge, weld, mill in our machine shops, chase, grind, lathe turn, and perform any metalworking operation needed to attain a first rate repair, or to fabricate replacement elements indistinguishable from the original

Grand Central Train Gate Cast Iron Saddles not designed for 4,000 lb. baggage handler trucks running over it.

The original cast iron saddle was 3/8" thick maximum, the new saddles 1" thick

Olek engineered stronger architectural steel saddles with tread and track grooves, with brass liner

            • Modern furniture  metal repairs  executed skillfully and with precision, utilizing the original materials, whether plastic, rubber, fiberglass, or various types of metalsl

Karl Springer Coffee Table with Bamboo Parquetry splitting and losing bamboo inlays

Karl Springer Bamboo parquetry Oriental Style Table developed splitting top, sides, legs, and loss of bamboo inlays

Missing bamboo inlaid, splits  over top filled in with solid wood beneath, and bamboo lifted and reglued, covering splits, then cement matched and filled in between bamboo, then bamboo stained and touched up, and finish applied.

To attain impeccable, meticulous results, we employ the finest European craftsmen; cabinetmakers, metal machinists and welders, carvers, upholsterers, artists, even glaziers.  We respect the integrity of furniture and know the importance of maintaining the original design and joinery when repairing your furniture or architectural woodwork. We will not insert a dowel into a mortise-and-tenon joint that will compromise a tenon’s function, to effect a cheap “repair”. 

Plaster Sculpture Repair of John Dickenson Table:

This plaster table had thin, flexible armatures "supporting" the plaster, and as a result all the legs were splitting in multiple places, with one leg broken off. Repairing the sculpture required installing heavier armatures, and cementing all the cracked elements.

You can count on us to repair furniture or woodwork joinery true to the original design, so you will enjoy the furniture for many trouble-free decades after it has left our shop. There are instances when the original design was  flawed and we suggest an improvement for durability, as with the sculpture above, or with the Eames Lounge Chair manufactured by Herman Miller. The shock mounts attaching the back to the seat reliably break in five to thirty years, due to a flawed design, and inappropriate use of materials. We have developed a superior proprietary solution. We offer this improvement as an alternative, although it appears indistinguishable from the original design.  If we offer such a solution we seek our clients’ approval before taking action to change an aspect of the furniture we restore.

Olek's ability to repair antique period wood joinery on furniture or woodwork ranging from the middle ages to modern, from Rococo to Regency is well known. Complicated  repairs and badly damaged furniture are routine for us. Our European cabinetmakers perform complicated, intricate restoration of missing marquetry, carvings, and joinery, on wood that is in good condition, or suffering from smoke or fire damage, or the ravages of powder post beetles.  Our mission is to restore your furniture, so you cannot tell that a repair was made;  the furniture will look like it was well maintained throughout its life.

Vanderbilt Bar- Braided crops, horseshoes, ribbons with tassels, straps, all replicated with hand of the original carver

We  repair historic exterior architectural woodwork, including doors, windows, and trim.  We meticulously follow original joinery design, no matter how complicated, so superior results are obtained, that there is no substitute for.  Many of the historic buildings we work on are Landmarked or on the National Register of Historic Places, and these details must be coordinated and approved by historic preservation agencies.  We can offer these agencies, and architects or others involved with the management of such projects, advice on the joinery and materials to be used, that will improve the results obtained.